A cloudy and hot February day greeted a
small but enthusiastic field of 17 
Three different types of navigation would
be used in the event. The Historic, which was map reading navigation but
with out grid references etc, The Tour, which was simple rout chart
navigation and The Classic which involved grid references, herring bones
etc.
After a crew briefing competitors in the
Historic/Tour took up the challenge of three motorkhana tests at
Awabawac Park, Westlake's Automobile Clubs grounds near Toronto, just
south of Newcastle, NSW.
There was a few surprises in the
Motorkhana with the big Commodore of Alder/Alder taking out fastest time
in one test, but with two fastest times the over all winner was
Coffey/Adams driving a Ford Escort.
While the motorkhana was in progress the
Classic competitors were on the road with a short navigational section
which brought them back to Awabawac Park about the same time as the
motorkhana finished.
After the Motorkhana competitors
travelled via a short transport section to Freeman's Water Hole for the
start of an Economy Run which took competitors to Raymond Terrace, some
95 km's away. Competitors were allocated an amount of fuel based on the
size of their engine to complete the section and were then penalised for
using more than their allotted amount. Just about everyone received a
penalty but the Coffey/Adams team easily bettered their allocation of 4
Litres, using only 3.16 litres. Also beating their allocation, driving a
Peugeot was the Thompson/Thomas team.
At the lunch break Haigh/Haigh driving a
Jaguar was in the lead in the Historic category, while in the Tour
driving an Escort was Coffey/Adams. The Classic category was being lead
by Graham/Keast driving a Ford Cortina.
After lunch competitors headed out into
the Hunter Valley for a 150 km long section along some great roads,
through Seaham, Clarence Town, Glen Martin, Glen William and back to
Raymond Terrace.
One of the challengers for competitors
was to make sure they did not travel longer or shorter than the rally
route. Competitors had to drive over a set Skm's at the start to
ascertain their Speedo error and then by the use a mathematical equation
after each section it could be determined whether they had travelled the
correct distance. So any trips up a wrong road here and there would all
add up. A number of competitors received penalties for travelling longer
then the correct distance.
A new thing for this event was Photo
Points; competitors were all issued disposable cameras at the start and
were required to take photos of via points along the rally route.
The afternoon sky started to darken and a
few of the organizing team began to worry and think about last years
event which had a mini cyclone hit in the afternoon section resulting in
flooding, but even though the cloud hung around no rain resulted till
later that night.
Taking out first in the Historic category
was Haigh/Haigh in their Jaguar while in the Tour category, driving an
Escort was the crew of Coffey/Adams. The Classic category was won by the
Kempsey crew of Graham/Keast in a Ford Cortina.
So ended another Fluffy Duck
Historic/Classic Tour.
Jim Pope
